A little bit sad, but quite a bit glad

The federal election results are in, and they make me both glad and sad.

To start, I sure am glad that the Liberals did not get a majority — although a Conservative majority would have been even worse. As those of you who are regular readers of my blog know, I was hoping all along that it would be a Liberal minority and that’s what we got. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals earned 157 seats, 13 short of the 170 seats required for a majority.

The NDP had 24 MPs elected, enough to give them the balance of power. Jagmeet Singh ran a very energetic campaign that picked up a lot of momentum as election day neared. However, this was still a setback since the NDP held 39 seats when parliament was dissolved. Still, they were one of two parties I’d hoped would hold the balance of power in a Liberal minority, so I’m glad they achieved what they did.

But I’m also sad because Elizabeth May’s Green Party only elected three MPs. While this is a gain of one seat, it’s considerably short of what many pundits had been predicting, and what I’d hoped for for the Greens. While they can still be big influencers, they won’t hold the kind of power I was anticipating.

For me, the No. 1 issue facing humankind is the climate crisis and the Greens have the best plan of all Canadian parties on this issue and that’s why I wanted them to hold more seats. As I noted last week, they’re committed to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions 60% below 2005 levels by 2030. By comparison, the NDP plan is to cut emissions to 450 megatonnes by 2030, or 38% below 2005’s emissions.

Another point to celebrate is the annihilation of Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada. Even Mr. Bernier himself was unsuccessful in winning a seat. The so-called People’s Party represented everything I oppose — racism; an anti-immigration stance; and a total repudiation of the fact that the climate crisis is human-caused.

One more outcome on the glad side: I was delighted to see Jody Wilson-Raybould, who ran as an independent this time, get re-elected. It’s extremely difficult to get elected without a party’s backing.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould spoke truth to power and was quite willing to give up her seat in cabinet on a matter of principle. She was then expelled from the Liberal caucus simply because she believes that politicians should not interfere in the judicial process. I share her principles 100% having sat as an elected official for the City of Vancouver for 12 years while maintaining my law practice.

As you can see, for me it was an election with mixed results but, on balance, I’m looking forward with optimism and excitement as we wait to see how this new parliament will function.

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Daily atmospheric CO₂ [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (Oct. 23 2019):  408.64 ppm

One year ago (Oct. 23 2018):  406.80 ppm

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